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Crime Policy & Evaluation Group

This Group has completed a number of crime policy evaluation studies, many having had a direct impact, through reports to bodies such as the Department of Transport and the Home Office. For example the evaluation of the vehicle licensing system made eleven recommendations, the majority of which were adopted by the Department for Transport and which revolutionised the way in which the vehicle licensing system operates in the UK. Due to the recommendation that various databases be linked it is now possible, for example, to renew vehicle licences over the phone and on-line.

Research from this group has also made a considerable contribution to the Home Office crime strategy paper calling for greater emphasis on designing out crime (Cutting Crime: A New Partnership 2008-11, London: Home Office). In 2007 the Home Office established a Design and Technology Alliance against Crime to specifically promote the design agenda chaired by the Home Secretary. Sebastian Conran leads the Alliance with Professor Gloria Laycock as Deputy Leader covering the crime agenda.

The competitively awarded evaluation of the Home Office Violent Crime Prevention Programme fed directly into policy development as did work on good practice in drugs strategy; the effectiveness of asset recovery procedures and the role of publicity in effective crime prevention. This work resulted in important lessons for practitioners, such as the finding that the DNA fast-tracking programme did not lead to crime reduction, only to quicker case processing.